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S ervices for Arizona’s children are under attack. In
the past two years, the Arizona state legislature cut
approximately $300 million from the state’s primary and
secondary education budget causing school districts to lay off
teachers, increase class sizes, and reduce or drop extracurricular
activities that are vital to assuring our children’s educational
and developmental success.
Simultaneously, parents and employers expect schools to
raise student performance scores as measured by the AIMS test,
increase the state’s 73.4 percent four-year graduation rate, and
decrease the state’s 6.8 percent dropout rate of students in the
9 – 12th grades. Currently, Arizona boasts the nation’s second-
fastest growing student population but ranks 43 in the U.S. on
Education Week’s overall “chance-for-success” index.
At the same time that state funding is declining, there are
those who propose that the only way to improve Arizona’s
national education ranking is to increase the length of the school
day and/or the school year. And while it is true that students
are only in school 27 percent of the day, the demands of working
parents require that their children be at school before the bell
rings in the morning and remain at school long after the bell
rings at the end of the day. As a result, schools and community-
based providers began before and afterschool programs as a safe
and nurturing place for children to be while their parents work
instead of being home unsupervised.
According to America After 3 p.m., at nationwide survey
sponsored last year by the JC Penney Afterschool Fund, 16
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percent of Arizona children, or 185,737, participate in
organized afterschool programs, while 22 percent, or 252,557,
are unsupervised and take care of themselves an average of nine
hours per week.Thirty-four percent of Arizona children not in
afterschool (32,913) would likely participate if an afterschool
program was available in the community.
More than nine of every 10 Arizona adults agree that
there should be “some type of organized activity or place for
children and teens to go after school every day that provides
opportunities to learn.”
While quality afterschool, or out-of-school time, programs
originated as safe places for our children once the final school-
day bell rings, research now shows that quality afterschool
programming has a strong and direct link to a child’s overall
developmental and academic success.
Research consistently shows that participation in quality
afterschool programs results in improved school attendance,
increased academic achievement in reading and math, higher
levels of student engagement and motivation to learn, higher
self-esteem, reduced delinquency and increased likelihood of
high school graduation.
Specifically, the Promising Afterschool Programs Study of
about 3,000 low-income, ethnically diverse elementary and
middle school students showed that those who regularly attended
high-quality programs over two years demonstrated gains of up
to the 20th percentile in standardized math test scores compared
with peers unsupervised during after school hours.
 While no one argues that schools must remain focused on
the mastery of students’ skills, quality afterschool programs have
the potential to do more than merely increase the amount of
time for learning. Quality afterschool programs reaffirm what
is taught in the classroom at the same time they maximize
children’s different styles of learning and create environments
for learning that are distinct from the classroom environment.
Quality afterschool programs bring together community
resources that expose children to a level of experiential learning
that is not easily obtainable in the daily classroom environment
with all the other demands put on formal education. Out-
of-school time (OST) programs provide children both
the opportunity and experience to “try on” or “sample” or
“explore” various interests that they are not exposed to in
school and at the same time see firsthand the relevance of what
they are learning in school and what interests and careers they
might pursue after graduation.
Quality OST programs also give children the opportunity
to explore their own uniqueness and develop a self-confidence
that school does not always afford them. Finding their “niche” in
life and in school allows children to improve their performance
in academic areas where they previously struggled.
Arizona lacks a clear, comprehensive policy addressing the
long-term educational and development needs of our children
that takes into consideration the natural synchronicity that
exists between the formal school day and quality out-of-school
time programs. Currently there are before and afterschool
programs that are run by the schools; there are also afterschool
programs run by community-based organizations using existing
school facilities; and there are afterschool programs that are
run by community-based programs at independent locations.
In reality, there is little intentional programming that partners
directly with the schools that children attend for the purpose of
addressing and meeting our children’s needs. The 21st Century
Community Learning Centers, which are funded by the federal
Department of Education, are a notable exception.
The Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence, a non-
profit advocacy organization for the expansion of quality
afterschool programs for all Arizona’s children, is committed
to facilitating a statewide conversation that will hopefully lead
to the adoption of and support of a comprehensive policy to
benefit both our children and our schools.
In March, the Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence
convened the first Arizona Mayoral Summit on Afterschool/
Extended Learning with 100 education, business and
community leaders. The summit, hosted by the Arizona
Center for Afterschool Excellence, Tucson Mayor Robert
Walkup, Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman and Flagstaff Mayor
Sara Presler with support from the National League of Cities’
Youth Education and Families Institute, began identifying key
priorities and strategies for increasing afterschool availability
and accessibility, supporting afterschool program quality and
using afterschool programs to increase students’ workforce
readiness skills.
Summit participants concluded that to be effective, a
statewide afterschool strategy requires
• strong leadership and a commitment to change,
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• the completion of a statewide community needs assessment,
• an expanded partnership between schools and municipalities,
• engaged partnerships including youth representation,
• more effective collaboration between schools and out-of-
school time providers and
• creating a larger pool of qualified personnel to staff out-of-
school time programs.
Following the mayoral summit, the Arizona Center for
Afterschool Excellence began a partnership with the Valley
of the Sun United Way to develop an Out-of-School Time
Network Action Agenda for Maricopa County. Funded by
a United Way Worldwide grant, the OST Network Action
Agenda is designed to expand access for youth and families
in out-of-school time programs, increase coordination
among out-of-school time providers, school and community
resources, and actively engage out-of-school time providers in
post-secondary readiness strategies in the community.
Using the Forum for Youth Investment’s Ready by 21
approach to build on and coordinate existing efforts to improve
the outcomes of young people, the OST Network Action
Agenda is being developed by a diversity of policymakers,
school administrators, programs directors, business leaders and
parent representatives led by Dr. Kent Scribner, superintendent
of the Phoenix Union High School District. The hope is that
what is learned in adopting and implementing an OST action
agenda in Maricopa County will lead to similar efforts being
replicated in other counties which, in turn, will lead to major
statewide systemic changes in how Arizona educates and cares
for its children.
Ultimately, if Arizona is to be successful in raising and
educating children with the academic and life skills required to be
successful in school, work and life, we need to elect policymakers
at the local, state and national level that understand and are
committed to serving and meeting the needs of our children. We
need policymakers that understand our children are tomorrow’s
workforce, voters and community leaders. We need policymakers
that will understand how to grow and develop the state
economically without throwing our children’s education under
the school bus in order to balance the state budget. To that end,
the Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence will work with
partners statewide to conduct an afterschool awareness campaign
for Arizona candidates running for key state and congressional
positions highlighting both the need for and value of quality
afterschool programming as a critically needed piece of the
education reform puzzle.
The Arizona School Boards Association, its partner
school districts and superintendents must be major players
in promoting and designing new statewide policies for our
children. We all must work to elect leaders who will adopt
and fund the policies that will finally establish Arizona as an
education success story and national leader. „
About the writer: Melanie McClintock is the executive director of
the Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence. Learn more at www.
azafterschool.org.
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